


the fragility of a glass bottle

by livecement



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canada, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Multi, No bottles were injured in the making of this fic, Other, Polyamory, Prompt Fill, Small Town Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2019-02-12 01:28:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12948366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/livecement/pseuds/livecement
Summary: There are a lot of things weighing on Kei's mind, and with summer drawing to a close his partners are determined to make him talk. Even if it's not necessarily to them.





	the fragility of a glass bottle

**Author's Note:**

> Alright! So this fic is for speckledsolanaceae over on tumblr! A long while ago they prompted me the word "bottles" for tsukkiyachiyama. It was supposed to be a drabble, but my idea kinda exploded in my brain, and well here we are. I'm sorry it took me so long!! 
> 
> This fic is set in Canada just because it felt right for the tone I wanted. The town they're in is based on the two places I consider my hometowns (it's complicated).
> 
> Thank you essie for beta-reading!

“Will one of you tell me where we are going,” Kei snapped from where he was scrunched up in the back seat of Tadashi’s cramped, piece of garbage car. 

Hitoka was sitting in the passenger seat. She should have been the one in the back because she was tiny, but Tadashi had  _ insisted _ that he needed her up front with him. 

She turned and smiled. “You’ll see when we get there.”

Kei leveled her with a flat look, putting a falter in her smile. She turned to Tadashi, whispering, “Are we almost there?”

Tadashi chuckled before the car sped up noticeably. “Nearly there.”

Another minute passed quietly, save for the soft music on the radio and—

“If you won’t tell me where we’re going,” Kei grumbled, “will you at least tell me why I hear clinking glass coming from the trunk?”

“Nope!”

Kei glared into Tadashi’s stupid soft brown eyes through the rear-view mirror. He watched his boyfriend’s eyes crinkle as he snickered, “Sorry, Tsukki.”

He could only roll his own and look out the window to watch the passing fields of their small town. Why they would want to take him to the outskirts, besides to murder him, was beyond him.

Well, if he was going to be murdered, it may as well be by his two—at least usually—favourite people.

A few minutes later, they were pulling off of the single-lane highway onto the dirt path leading to the town's abandoned grain elevator. Tadashi pulled up a few meters from the dilapidated building and parked the car.

"If you two have finally gotten tired of me and brought me here so that no one would hear my screams," Kei droned, "at least have the decency to tell me now."

"Kei!" Hitoka yelped. She turned to him, her eyes somehow even wider than usual, "We haven't – w-we wouldn't—"

"Hittie," Tadashi cut in, taking her hands in his own, "he's kidding."  

Their girlfriend blinked owlishly at Tadashi then huffed, turning to pout at Kei.

"I'm sorry," he said sincerely, leaning forward to place a hand on her arm. He turned to Tadashi. "If it’s not that, then I can only assume we're here to smoke crack?"

There was another yelp from Hitoka and an unimpressed look from Tadashi.

"Come on," Tadashi said, opening the car door.

They all got out of the vehicle. Kei was glad to finally stretch his legs. The evening air was cool on his skin making him thankful that he'd worn a sweater. Low in the sky, the sun casted deep shadows off of the grain elevator and the rusted tractors and other farm equipment that surrounded it.  A breeze rolled through the fields that surrounded them, rustling the long golden grass, and bringing with it the smell of late summer; a reminder that break was almost over and they would all being going off to their separate schools again.

Kei huffed, turning around to find his boyfriend and girlfriend. They were at the back of the car opening the trunk.

"So are you finally going to tell me why we're out here?" he asked, rounding the back of the car.

When the inside of the trunk came into view Kei saw Tadashi hauling out a large box filled with empty beer bottles.  

"And what those are for?" he added.

Tadashi shifted the box in his arms to get a better grip, blowing a strand of hair out of his eyes. "We're going to recreate that one scene from [Balto](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ40ljRzKxo)."

Kei raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"No," Tadashi scoffed. "Get the trunk for me?" he called over his shoulder as he walked away.

"Ass," Kei muttered, closing the trunk and ignoring the fact that he felt a little disappointed.

He left the car to follow Tadashi to wherever the hell he was going. He was joined by Hitoka, who took his hand and smiled her most disarmingly sweet smile up at him. For that reason only, he didn't make any of the snarky comments that came to mind when they rounded the side of the building, gravel crunching under their feet as they walked.

The sheer size of the old grain elevator was imposing, making Kei feel very small.

A lot of things were making him feel that way lately, it seemed.

But if it intimidated him, he could only imagine how it made Hitoka feel. He glanced down at her and, as expected, her neck was craned as she stared up at the building with wide, mildly frightened eyes. Kei smirked and pulled his hand out of hers to wrap his arm around her shoulders instead, drawing her closer to him as they walked. A light blush spread over her cheeks as she turned to him with a nervous, almost self-deprecating laugh.

They caught up to Tadashi just as he was setting the box down onto the ground. Kei opened his mouth to speak—

"Yes, Tsukki," Tadashi beat him to the punch, turning to smile at them. "We will now tell you what we're doing here."

Kei closed his mouth and waited. Before either of them spoke, Hitoka drew out from under his arm to take his hand in both of her much smaller ones. Tadashi drew up beside her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders—the only part of her that either of them could reach without crouching.

Suddenly both of their expressions grew serious. Hitoka's was mixed with nervousness, and Kei started to feel uneasy.

"Um," she started, blinking up at Kei like a deer in the headlights, "w-we um- we're—" she huffed a large breath and looked up meaningfully at Tadashi. Kei did his very best to be patient.

Tadashi smiled at her reassuringly, smoothing his hand down the back of her hair. He turned his gaze to Kei, taking a breath before saying, "We're worried about you Kei."

Rustling grass filled the silence as Kei blinked at them.

"Okay," he finally said.

The two of them glanced at each other.

"You've just seemed kinda down," Tadashi elaborated. "Quiet, withdrawn."

"More so than usual," Hitoka amended, finding her courage once the subject was breached. "And snappier," she said in a much smaller voice. She worried at Kei's hand, rubbing over his knuckles with her thumbs.  

Kei swallowed down the immediate instinct to snap at her. That left him to fully experience the pang of guilt that her words caused, and he struggled not to look at his feet.

"But the worst part, Kei," she continued more urgently, "is the dark circles under your eyes."

"And how little you've been eating." Tadashi reached out to skim a hand down Kei's side.

This time Kei couldn't keep himself from looking away. Irritation crawled under his skin, but there was also fear and sadness and a whole mess of other things there. After taking a moment to compose himself, he forced a smirk onto his face and looked back at them.

"You had to drag me to the outskirts of town just to tell me that?" he quipped.

The almost smug look on Tadashi's face told Kei that he'd been expecting a response like that. "Actually, this is the part where we tell you what the bottles are for."

Hitoka nodded as they both smiled brightly at him. And just like that the heavy mood lifted to be carried away by the late summer breeze.

"So, um, we know that you have a hard time talking about the things that you're feeling." Tadashi's brows knitted together. "And that's okay," he affirmed, "we understand."

"But we still think that you should externalize what's bothering you, somehow," Hitoka chimed in. "You keep a lot of things bottled up inside of you, moonlight." 

The nickname was as disarming as it always was, much to Kei's annoyance. 

"It's not good for your soul," she added.

From anyone else that last part would have made Kei snort, but Hitoka was so sincere when she said it that Kei couldn't bring himself to remind her that he didn't believe in that sort of thing.

"So the reason we're here is…?" Kei prompted before Hitoka could go off on a tangent.

A chuckle from Tadashi drew Kei's attention back to him. "Well, you see," he said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly, "we kind of want you to, um—" he glanced back at the box of empty beer bottles—"transfer your pent up feelings from one bottle to another."

Kei had a bad feeling about where this was going. "Explain."

"We want you to whisper the things that are bothering you into these bottles." Hitoka was nearly vibrating, squeezing his hand. "From one metaphorical bottle to a real, physical one."

"How creative."

"I thought so," Tadashi commented, smiling indulgently at Hitoka, confirming to Kei that this was entirely her idea. "But that's not everything," he continued, "Once you've said whatever you need to say into the bottle, you're going to throw it against the wall."

"Smashing it to pieces!" Hitoka chirped.

"And we're going to do it too," Tadashi said before Kei could complain.

"And we're all going to wear safety goggles!"

"Right, yes."

Kei frowned at their eager faces, pulling his hand back from Hitoka. "I'd prefer not to do this."

Hitoka clasped her hands together pleadingly. "Please, Kei?"

"No thank you."

He turned to start walking back to the car, but he was stopped by a hard tug on his sweater. He looked over his shoulder to find himself being stared down by Tadashi. He had one of his ' _ Kei-could-you-please-not-be-a-dick-for-once-in-your-life-and-just-do-this'  _ looks on his face. He gestured to Hitoka with a subtle tilt of his head. Kei glanced over to see her looking at the ground with her lip between her teeth, her fingers twisting into anxious knots in front of her.

He sighed.

"Fine."

Hitoka perked up, eyes sparkling.

There was another light tug on his sweater. When he glanced back at Tadashi he received a quick wink and a smile.

"You're going first," was all Kei said in response.

Tadashi laughed. "Yeah, I figured." 

Accepting that his fate was very much sealed, Kei rejoined his partners by the box of glass bottles. Hitoka was quick to hand out the safety goggles—Kei’s the kind made to wear over glasses because Hitoka was never unprepared. When they were all equipped, looking like an episode of Mythbusters, Tadashi grabbed a bottle from the box and strode a few paces away from them. As he whispered into his bottle, Kei noted that even in the stupid goggles, he still managed to look hot. It had to be because of the half-up-half-down hairstyle he’d been sporting lately. Kei would have to discuss it with Hitoka later. 

Once Tadashi was done telling an empty beer bottle his problems, he turned to them with a grin. “Alright, here we go.” 

As Tadashi wound his arm back Kei felt Hitoka latch onto his arm in anticipation. He didn’t feel particularly excited about watching glass shatter, but he watched with her as Tadashi hurled the bottle at the wall with all the finesse expected of the former closing pitcher of their old high school’s baseball team. 

The force with which the bottle hit the side of the grain elevator was impressive. The bottle shattered into surprisingly small pieces that fell to the ground with a chorus of soft clinks. 

“Strike!” Hitoka cheered. 

Tadashi scratched the back of his head bashfully. “I probably didn’t have to throw it so hard.”

“Don’t pretend you weren’t showing off.” 

“Oh?” Tadashi tilted his chin up at Kei. “Are you too intimidated to try now, Tsukki?”

“That’s not what I said.”

“Afraid it won’t break?” he continued to taunt, “Or that you won’t even make it to the wall?” 

That was ridiculous and they all knew it. It wasn’t like Kei hadn’t played baseball in high school as well. He may not have been one of the best pitchers in the region like Tadashi, but he’d been good at what he did. It was bait. He knew it. Tadashi knew it. And yet Kei took it anyway. 

“Give me a bottle.” 

Almost immediately Hitoka was pressing one into his hand. 

He snatched it from her and stalked away, ignoring Tadashi’s smug look as he passed him. 

Stopping around the same spot that Tadashi did, Kei hesitated to bring the bottle up to his mouth. 

“Do I really have to whisper into this thing?” 

“Well you can’t just throw an empty bottle at the wall, Tsukki. That would defeat the purpose of the exercise.”

“The bottle will still be empty after I’ve whispered into it.”

“Not in a metaphorical sense, it won’t.”  

He shot a withering look Tadashi’s way. Then, while Hitoka told Tadashi to stop bugging him, he turned that look onto the bottle in his hand. He didn’t have a fucking clue what he should say. Sure, there were things that he worried about, but most of the time he didn’t allow those thoughts to fully form in his head, ignoring them instead. As a result, he didn’t have words for his worries. 

Well, it wasn’t like they would know what he said anyway. 

He brought the bottle to his lips and murmured, “I’m worried that for the rest of my life these two are going to be dragging me into stupid shit like this.” 

Then he looked directly into Tadashi’s eyes before turning back and launching the bottle at the wall with all of his strength.

Watching it smash to pieces ended up being  relatively gratifying (even if it hadn’t been as explosive as when Tadashi threw). As the chunks of glass dropped to the ground he heard his partners cheering for him. It brought a light flush to his cheeks. Adjusting the goggles on his face, he strode back to them, mumbling, “It’s Hitoka’s turn.” 

“Ah! I’m so nervous.”

Tadashi laughed gently. “Why?” 

“Because you guys both decimated your first bottles so spectacularly!” She waved her arms around and fluttered her fingers to demonstrate. “What if- what if I can’t even get mine to the wall?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Kei told her, “I know you can throw.”

“But—” 

“No buts!” Tadashi handed her a bottle and turned her around by the shoulders. “If it doesn’t break the first time you can just throw it again.” 

He nudged her forward with a light smack to her ass. “Now go get ’em, tiger.” 

“Dashi!” she squealed, placing a hand on her behind and glaring at Tadashi playfully over her shoulder as she walked away. 

Kei clicked his tongue. “You’re so lame.”

He got a half-hearted shove and a grin in response.

They stood close together, watching their girlfriend roll the empty beer bottle between her hands as she thought. After a few moments she nodded to herself and started whispering. When she glanced over at Kei with a soft, sad smile, he frowned. 

Then he felt an arm wrap around his waist. Tadashi’s lips brushed against his ear as he was gently chided. “Stop scowling at her.” 

He turned his scowl on Tadashi instead. But that only made him chuckle, leaning in to peck the pout on Kei’s lips. 

“Okay! Here I go!” 

They turned to watch Hitoka as she eyed the looming grain elevator with determination. 

She took a deep breath. “Okay.” 

She drew her arm back. Then she took another, deeper breath.

“Okay,” she said again.

“Okay,” Kei and Tadashi said together.

She took one last exceptionally large breath and then flung the bottle at the wall. It sailed through the air in a high arc, and Kei cringed, knowing exactly what was going to happen. The exhaled  _ oh shit  _ by his ear told him that Tadashi knew too. They watched on in resignation as the bottle dropped down and hit low on the wall, bouncing off to land on the ground and—not shatter. 

It was very quiet as they all stared at the unbroken beer bottle. 

Frozen in the end of her throwing motion, Hitoka blinked. “Well fuck.” 

Kei had already been shaking with suppressed laughter, but that broke him. A snicker escaped his lips before his hand made it up to stifle it. Tadashi pinched his side, but he had his face buried in Kei’s shoulder and was shaking just the same.  

“Stop laughing!” 

They looked back at Hitoka, her bright pink cheeks puffed out under her goggles, pouting.

“Well,” Kei snickered into his hand, “you made it to the wall at least.” 

“Keeeeiiiii!” 

“Come on, Hittie!” Tadashi joined in, continuing to chuckle. “You can throw better than that!” 

“You two are the worst!” She crossed her arms and turned away from them.

“Aw no, baby, we’re sorry.” Tadashi tried to hide the mirth in his voice but did a very poor job of it. He started walking toward her. “Try again, your nerves just messed you up.”  

With his long legs he reached her quickly, but she continued facing away. “No, you guys will just laugh at me again.” 

“If you break it we won’t have to laugh at you,” Kei said loudly enough for them to hear. 

“And you will break it,” Tadashi quickly added. “You were just overthinking it.” 

He jogged over to the bottle and picked it up, then ran back to Hitoka, holding it out to her. “Here, trust me.”  

“Okay, okay,” she said, taking hold of the bottle. Kei didn’t think she seemed very convinced. Apparently neither did Tadashi, because instead of letting go and walking away, he leaned down close to her ear with a mischievous look and started whispering. 

Kei obviously couldn’t hear what he was saying, but he assumed it was good considering Hitoka had broken out into a shy smile. She nodded along as Tadashi spoke, giggling softly. And Kei really needed to know what the hell their boyfriend was telling her, because now Hitoka was looking over at him, biting her bottom lip cutely. He frowned at them both, but was ignored. 

Finally Tadashi finished his little pep talk. He kissed Hitoka on the cheek and gave her hip a squeeze before sauntering back over to Kei. 

“What did you say to her?” he asked.

“Ah, y’know.” He shrugged. “Just some motivational stuff to get her fired up.” 

“Stuff like what?”

“You’ll find out later.” 

“Eh-”

But Tadashi cut him off with a nod toward Hitoka. 

Kei was forced to drop it and watch their girlfriend make her second attempt. He could tell that she was muttering to herself by the way her lips were moving a hundred clicks a minute. But unlike last time, her body was more relaxed as she took an athletic stance. She wound her arm back and stepped into the throw, sending the bottle hurtling toward the grain elevator with a surprising amount of speed, shattering it into a few good chunks. 

The joy on Hitoka’s face was priceless. 

She jumped up and down, clapping her hands, excited laughter sounding like sunshine and rainbows. When she turned her hundred-watt-smile on them, it made something flutter in Kei’s stomach. A smile tugged on the corners of his mouth as she ran back to them. Tadashi had to dodge to the side and catch her before she barrelled into both of them. 

“That felt so good!” She was vibrating in Tadashi’s arms. “We have to keep going! Tadashi, hurry up!” 

“Alright, alright, I’m going,” Tadashi chuckled. He planted a kiss in her hair, letting her go to grab a bottle from the box. 

That left only Kei to reign in Hitoka’s sudden surge of energy. He watched as she bounced in place, doing a weird little dance with her hands, and was once again struck with fondness. There were times when her over-excitable nature irritated him, but right now he was only glad that she was feeling good. 

“Hitoka,” he said to grab her attention, extending a hand to her, palm up, when he got it. “Nice throw.” 

She beamed up at him, smacking his hand in a low-five. With a smirk, he pulled her over to stand in front of him, wrapping his arms around her shoulders. She held onto his forearms and leaned back against him, still fidgeting a little. Kei wasn’t usually the most physically intimate person, but summer was coming to an end and soon opportunities like this would be few and far between. 

He abruptly pushed that thought away, giving Hitoka a little squeeze as he focused on where Tadashi had taken a pitcher’s stance. 

Their boyfriend was fiddling with the bottle with both his hands, trying to position his fingers a specific way.

“Oh my god, he’s not,” Kei scoffed upon realizing what Tadashi was trying to do.

“Not what?”

Kei glanced down at the big brown eyes blinking up at him and shook his head. “Just watch, you’ll see.” 

When Tadashi seemed to have the bottle held how he wanted, he brought it to his lips to whisper a few quick words before bringing it down to chest level, his elbows tucked into his sides. He had one hand covering the bottle like an imaginary baseball glove. 

“It’s the bottom of the ninth,” he announced like a total dork. “The score is 7-5. Two outs, bases loaded.” He took a very dramatic breath, narrowing his eyes at the grain elevator. “Three balls, two strikes. This is it.” 

“Absolutely no pressure,” Kei added.  

Tadashi ignored him. “And here’s the windup,” he said, doing just that. He raised his knee up high, pausing just a second before he stepped into the pitch, transferring all of his energy into the release. 

And release he did.

Straight into the dirt. 

The resulting shatter was rather anticlimactic after all of the buildup.

This time Kei didn’t bother trying to cover up his laughter. And neither did Hitoka, though hers was more bewildered. 

“What the hell was that, Dashi?” 

“He was—” Kei nearly doubled over Hitoka with laughter— “he was trying to knuckleball it.” 

“It would have been awesome!” Tadashi groaned.

“A knucklebottle!” Hitoka chimed. 

“That’s exactly what I was thinking!”

“It’s not even scientifically possible,” Kei snickered, removing himself from Hitoka to grab a bottle.  

“Babe,” Tadashi clutched his chest dramatically, “could ya let a man dream?” 

He started staggering back toward them as if he’d been wounded. When Kei reached him on the way to take his turn, Tadashi “collapsed”, draping his arms over Kei’s shoulders as he leaned into him. Kei caught him by the waist, even though he didn’t really have to. 

“You can dream all you want,” he gave Tadashi’s hip a squeeze, “but that pitch was still hideous.” 

A laugh shook through Tadashi as he stood up properly and shoved Kei away. “Shut up, Tsukki!” 

Smirking, Kei set himself up in what had become the official throwing spot. He had a little more of an idea of what he wanted to say, but the idea of saying those things aloud, even just to stupid bottle, embarrassed him. So he kept it simple. Just something that had been annoying him at his summer job: 

Why did his coworker never vacuum the one and only carpet in the entrance of the store before he closed up? Or any of his other very simple tasks for that matter? Why did Kei always have to clean up his messes when he opened in the morning? How was it that their assistant manager hadn’t done anything about it yet? How had he even been hired? 

He could have ranted about that moron for eons, but unfortunately they would only have sun for a couple more hours.  

“Alright,” he called to his partners, “I’m gonna throw this bottle like a normal person now.” 

“You do that!” Tadashi shouted back. 

“I will.”

“Go right ahead!” 

“Fine.”

“Perfect!” 

“Boys!” Hitoka scolded. 

They both shut up. Kei focused back on the wall, picturing his coworker standing against it. And then he aimed right at that asshole’s face, sending the bottle flying. Surprisingly, after the bottle shattered, he actually felt a little bit better. 

Interesting. 

After that they continued to take turns. As gratifying as metaphorically smashing his problems was, Kei continued to stick with his more trivial concerns. He did wonder what Tadashi and Hitoka were saying, though, but he figured if they wanted him to know they would have told him.  

It was nice to see Hitoka growing more and more confident in her arm. She and Tadashi started a competition over who could make the wildest throws. Eventually Kei was dragged into it, trying to throw it under his leg. He failed, but it made Tadashi happy.

At one point Hitoka got a little too into it, as she often did with things, and started spinning around in circles, holding onto the bottle by the neck as she did so. She spun and spun, waiting to release it at exactly the right moment. Unfortunately, she let go a moment too early and sent the bottle hurtling  _ just  _ past Kei and Tadashi.

Immediately, she started to freak out. Blubbering apology after apology, shaking like a leaf as she grabbed at them to make sure they were okay. It took them a good five minutes to get her to calm down, telling her that it was okay, no one was hurt, just maybe try something a little less… dangerous, next time. 

She stuck to throwing normally after that.

Despite nearly being maimed by his girlfriend, Kei was enjoying himself. In a small town it was hard to find things to do that weren’t video games, drugs, or drinking in someone’s garage. Unless you wanted to drive to the nearest city, life was pretty lame most of the time. But there, at the abandoned grain elevator of all places, Kei was having fun. 

He watched as his two favourite people smiled and laughed under the setting sunlight, Hitoka perched on top of Tadashi’s shoulders as they clinked their bottles together. Then he watched as they attempted to throw them at the same time. It was awkward, and they barely managed to break them, but it was cute.  And fuck, he was going to miss them come September. 

A lot. 

The thought that’d been weighing on his heart for weeks suddenly felt a hundred times heavier.     

When his partners made their way back to him, Hitoka slid off of Tadashi to the ground and looked into the box. 

“Only one left!” 

Kei stared pointedly off into the distance. 

“You wanna take it, Tsukki?” 

“It’s his turn anyway!” 

“How miraculous,” Kei muttered. 

It was quiet suddenly, two pairs of eyes burning holes in his skin. 

“Yeah, I’ll take it,” he finally said, not looking at either of them as he bent down to grab the bottle. When he stood back up, he caught the weird look Tadashi was giving him, but ignored it, walking away. 

Dwarfed by the old grain elevator, Kei stood and thought. He thought about going back to school, hours away from home, spending most of his days alone. Or worse, with classmates he didn’t particularly care for. He hadn’t really made any friends his first year. He told himself that it was by his own choice, but he knew most of the people in his courses thought he was an asshole. And sure, he was. But it was hard for him to relax around people he didn’t know. Hitoka had once told him he was more of a “slow burn” kind of friend. Unfortunately for Kei, college seemed to be filled with people who could connect at a glance. 

There were times when he appreciated the solitude, being able to focus on his schoolwork without any nagging social obligations. But even someone like Kei needed companionship sometimes. 

He had Skype calls with Hitoka and Tadashi, obviously. They texted all the time. But none of that was the same as being able to hang out together, watching movies, or going for walks. Even just being in the same room together, each doing their own thing but still enjoying each other’s company. It was especially hard when Hitoka and Tadashi’s schools were so close together. They were able to visit each other easily on weekends, but for Kei it meant a trip and a half to get to either of them. So he usually only saw them on holidays. It hurt. Made him feel left out. Maintaining a relationship like theirs was difficult enough already, but throwing in the long distance thing made it even more so. 

And all of this for a program he wasn’t even sure he wanted to be in.

These were the things that kept Kei up at night. They were what made it difficult to be around people who seemed to have everything figured out. All of this had been sitting heavy in Kei’s stomach, had been squeezing his ribcage until he couldn’t breathe, had been crawling under his skin until it itched. All summer long. 

Now summer was over and he needed to face it. 

But whispering it into a bottle wasn’t going to help him. So he didn’t. He just threw the fucking thing.  _ Hard.  _ The force of it nearly sent him toppling over and he had to brace his hands on his knees to stabilize himself. 

He didn’t watch the bottle shatter, but he heard it, distantly. His breathing was heavy and his fingers were clenching at the fabric of his jeans. Suddenly, he became much too aware of the safety goggles on his face. He ripped them off with a growl, chucking them to the side. The action knocked his glasses to the ground, but he didn’t bother picking them up. His eyes were scrunched tight as he pinched his nose, focusing on slowing his breathing. 

Crunching gravel footsteps, slow and hesitant, brought his attention to Tadashi and Hitoka approaching him. 

“Tsukki?” Tadashi’s voice was soft. 

Kei cleared his throat. “I’m—”

“Please don’t say you’re fine, moonlight,” Hitoka cut in, laying a gentle hand on his back. “You’re clearly not.” 

Another hand joined Hitoka’s. “Please just talk to us.” 

Breathing deeply through his nose, Kei took a few moments before standing up straight. He rubbed at his eyes to try and relieve some tension, then rolled his shoulders back for the same reason. He felt what was probably his glasses being pressed into his hand. Thankfully, when he looked them over, they weren’t scratched. He put them on and took one last breath to compose himself, placing his hands on his hips. 

“It’s just that,” he started, not able to look at his partners as he spoke, “I’m going to miss you both when we go back to school.” 

A breeze rolled through, chillier than it had been before. Kei remained quiet as he waited for a response. When he didn’t get one right away, he couldn’t help but glance over at his partners. They were both watching him pensively; Hitoka with her big eyes looking soft and sad, chewing on her lip, and Tadashi with a crease between his eyebrows and a small pout. Kei could tell that they knew he wasn’t telling them everything. Annoyance fluttered in his stomach as he waited for the pestering to start. 

But it never did. 

Instead, he suddenly found himself wrapped up in both of their arms.

“We’re gonna miss you too, Kei,” Hitoka said, resting her head on his chest. “So much.” 

He let his arm drape over her shoulders, rubbing her arm appreciatively. 

“It’s gonna suck, a lot.” Tadashi pressed a kiss to Kei’s shoulder. “But we’ll make it.” 

“Yeah! It’ll be Thanksgiving weekend before we know it!” 

Kei hummed. There was a lot more to it than that, and he would talk to them about it soon, but not here. 

He let his partners hold him for a few more seconds before it got too much and he started to shake them off. “Alright, alright. You love me, I get it.” 

They both smiled as they let go of him. 

“It’s starting to get dark,” he told them. “We should get going before the crackheads start showing up.” 

“Or a cop,” Tadashi added, picking up the empty box and starting back to the car. 

“Yeah, that’s the last thing we need.” Kei followed after him. “We’re already the talk of the town.” 

Tadashi snickered. 

“Guys, wait!”

They both stopped, turning to look at their girlfriend. She was fretting at the hem of her t-shirt, bouncing on her toes. 

“We need to clean up the broken glass!” 

Of course. 

“Hittie, baby, you know I love how considerate and environmentally conscious you are, but people literally come here to do drugs and party.”

“If we were to go inside the building we would find broken glass and other much worse things, I’m sure.” 

“But,” she started twisting her shirt, “we can’t control what those people do! But we can clean up after ourselves!” 

“No,” he and Tadashi said at the same time. 

“But!” 

There was only one way to end this, and Kei knew it. He marched over to their girlfriend and picked her up, easily throwing her over his shoulder. 

“Kei!” she shrieked, giggling and kicking her feet. 

“It’s getting too dark.” Kei grabbed onto her legs to protect his face. “We’re leaving.” 

Her body went limp, giving up. “Okay, fine.” 

“Cheer up,” he said, pinching her ass lightly, making her jolt in his arms. “Apparently you and Tadashi have something planned for later.” 

She perked up at that. “Oh yeah!” 

And then she giggled conspiratorially all the way back to the car. 

On the way back home, Kei got to sit in the passenger seat. Tadashi held his hand the whole ride, and Hitoka insisted they play the mix CD Kei had made for them in the eleventh grade. It was embarrassing, but he hummed along to the songs anyway, just happy to have this time with his two favourite people.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Hope you enjoyed. 
> 
> And if you care, I'm livecement on tumblr as well!


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